Antique Visualizations on Mortality in USA

Jonathan Soma, one of the founders of Brooklyn Brainery --a collaborative education organization based out of Brooklyn-- has created the very impresive website called A Handsome Atlas.

A Handsome Atlas presents the amazing and incredible Statistical Atlases of the United States of America compiled in the final decades of the Nineteenth Century.

The old maps from the 19th century are probably the best graphs you can find. There are complete contrast to the aesthetics you find today. The yellowish paper, hand-drawn graphs, and deep, warm colors from the printing method provide a superb look. The effort also needed to make these graphs is always gratifying since I know it took time and planning to create each graph.

A new site, Handsome Atlas, shows the pages from the U.S. Census books from the late 19th century. The U.S. was emerging from the Civil War and the Census publications became more illustrious.

The collection of atlas and data visualizations tagged as Mortality (above screenshot) called particularly my attention as a reminder of a lot of efforts done by public health professionas from the Nineteeth Century for analyzing and documenting the status of population health. This is an inspiration for our current and future work in public health.